An early-morning decision by the U.S. Supreme court has blocked cameras from a California court room, reversing last week's decision to allow the delayed broadcast of a controversial trial on YouTube . The court is examining the constitutionality of Proposition 8 , the same-sex marriage ban that was voted into law last year. The trial was set to be the first of its kind, with its proceedings broadcast on a delay over YouTube. The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the ban on its rebroadcast will be in place until at least Wednesday, to give the justices more time to consider the matter. The trial began this morning at 9 a.m. in San Francisco. Sponsor Prop 8 supporters, the side that opposes gay marriage, have been pushing to stop the trial's broadcasting altogether, saying that it might discourage witnesses from testifying. At the moment, it looks like their effort has been successful. The SFist quoted a motion by William Tam, one of the defendants, who said that he feared for the safety of himself and his family were the trial to be broadcast. "The first reason is because I am fearful for my personal safety and the safety of my family," Tam wrote in the motion. "In the past I have received threats on my life, had my property vandalized and am recognized on the streets due to my association with Proposition 8. Now that the subject lawsuit is going to trial, I fear that I will get more publicity, be more recognizable and that the risk of harm to me and my family will increase." The order to block the cameras from the court room came just hours before the trial was set to begin. Discuss

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Supreme Court Blocks YouTube Broadcast of Same-Sex Marriage Trial

I'm just aching to know if the new Apple tablet (insert caveats, weasel words and qualifiers here) is a potential Cintiq competitor. I don't think it will be, but you never know. It may also have a built in barometer and bird call generator. I'm never sure if Apple does themselves more good than harm with the secrecy and anticipation that surrounds the run-up to these announcements. Unless there's something truly jaw-dropping about whatever device rises from the stage when Steve Jobs reaches that particular slide in Keynote, the reaction may be muted disappointment: "Oh." "Huh." "Wait a minute... my life is still the same miasma of thwarted potential and spiritual anomie that it was half an hour ago!" Sponsor That said, what are you expecting on Jan. 27? More Noise to Signal. Discuss

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Cartoon: Apple Tablet: Now With Barometer and Bird Call Generator

Being a technology blogger is like having a license for an around-the-clock gadget and Web addiction. No one expects you to leave your house during the day. You're allowed to spend the majority of your life in front of a glowing screen, and flipping out over WiFi issues is par for the course. And you're never far from the Web, since your mobile is always in hand when you have to leave your laptop behind for some incomprehensible reason. But even with such a license in hand, I have to make a case for periodically disconnecting. What do you think? Sponsor More and more, I am trying to set aside unplugged hours and even days for Internet-free, mobile-free, "Luddite time." Time for asking a stranger for directions, time for talking to the people you're with rather than the people you "follow," time for interacting with the world around you in ways that don't include clicking, scrolling or downloading. Time that's increasingly being destroyed by smart phones, "super" phones and what ever "super duper" devices are in the pipeline. Sitting in front of these glowing screens (as most of us do) for around eight hours a day for work and additional hours for leisure can't be good for us as living, breathing organisms. Have you ever spent the whole day absorbed in the web - the rabbit holes of YouTube, the breadcrumb trails of Wikipedia, the party line of Twitter and the bottomless virtual library of blog posts - to find yourself startled by actual human interaction, in a strange and unrestul intellectual state. With enough consecutive days of online-only living, you might realize you're making more connections between online entities and content, but you're losing opportunities to have fresh, original thought or observations about your own world. I'm not saying that the Internet makes you stupid. I am saying that, if left to run wild across the vast territories of the Web, your mind can turn into a laboratory hamster, frantically pulling levers and running in wheels while his environment remains essentially static and his motivations essentially artificial. Another detriment to a constantly wired life is that you're not truly present with the folks around you every day, and you begin to forget how polite, normal people communicate. You become too easily distracted by notifications from your mobile, glazing over and tuning out to parse your RSS feeds while real conversations are going on without you. And being accustomed to ignoring your surroundings in favor of your online life numbs you to the fact that often, your friends are doing the same to you. If you've ever sat through a dinner with your significant other or a group of geek friends as you all happily tapped away on your mobiles, you know this is true. And while being able to buck conventional table manners and geek out together is a wonderful thing, aren't you cheating yourself out of valuable face-to-face interaction by doing so? And very often, an preoccupation with the Web leads to a total loss of perspective. If you have ever stayed awake until 2 or 3 in the morning entrenched in a furious debate on Scoble's FriendFeed over something that the entire world had completely forgotten 12 hours later (guilty!), you have definitely lost perspective. Not typically the most empathetic people, we begin to give more attention and emotion to minor tech events (Google Wave, anyone?) than to major world events. If it didn't trend on Twitter and hit Digg's front page, we tend to not notice or care. Although the social web can occasionally be used as a power for good, notably through efforts such as those carried out during the Iranian election/debacle or on World Aids Day, this circle is notoriously self-obsessed and navel-gazing to the obfuscation of much more important matters. Finally, being constantly online is probably fairly bad for your health. A few of the people I've spoken to tonight tell me that to distract themselves from Internet obsessions, they turn to physical activity, such as gym workouts, yoga or running. These dear souls are escaping the sedentary lifestyle to which we've all grown fairly accustomed and which most certainly has negative effects on how we look, how we feel, our metabolism and energy level and so much more. And although mobile and AR technologies are making it easier for us to get out and about while still connected, more often they act as a tether to larger, more stationary devices. I personally want to spend many hours in 2010 offline and off my mobile. I want to do things like watch an old movie, go for a walk, have a dinner date or read an honest-to-god newspaper without checking in on Foursquare or posting an "overheard" on Twitter. Maybe it's a sign that I'm aging. Many of my contemporaries say their sole offline time is sleeping. I've certainly lived that way, too, and I spend many days now online for 14-18 hours. But I don't want every day to be like that. What about you, dear readers? Do you currently plan for and enforce offline hours for yourself, your significant other or your family? If so, how and when do you take your breaks? Or are you a tireless defender of the Internet junkie lifestyle? Most importantly, what do you see as the explicit benefits or detriments of being online around the clock - or of taking periodic furloughs? Let us know your opinions and best practices in the comments. Discuss

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Open Thread: Should Tech Get a Turn-Off?

It's been a long and winding road for serial volunteer and social media philanthropist Sloane Berrent . Since her unplanned departure from an L.A.-based startup in 2008, Berrent has traveled through eight countries, documenting and publicizing the struggles of those in developing areas through her blog posts, tweets, images, videos, and her own presence at events at home and abroad. From post-Katrina New Orleans to a trash dump in Manila to a monastery in Burma, read on for her story of trying to achieve social good through social media. Sponsor Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a best-of list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! RWW: "Social media for social good" has become the catchphrase du jour, it seems. What does it actually mean; how much can social media users affect social change, and how? I am a strong believer in the idea that the things you do online are meant to facilitate your offline interactions. People are so fast to click a button, and that can be great. Retweeting, forwarding, and Facebook walls are great engagements. But what's more difficult is the donate button. That's the big hurdle and disconnect. I'm trying to provide these inspirational opportunities in time-boxed campaigns. Social media is slowly catching on, but there's a lot of noise. Standing out is hard; it's important to have an offline component. Berrent was visibly disturbed by what she witnessed at this Manila trash dump, where she saw shoeless children running through piles of debris. RWW: Tell me about your experiences with Kiva borrowers. What kinds of people and enterprises have you seen? In your opinion, does microlending have a measurable impact on struggling local economies? Kiva is really unique. It has a lot of power users - more than any nonprofit I've ever seen. One man has made a thousand loans. It's individual stories, and people really connect. You get updates on that person, and people say it's their favorite email of the month. As a microlending company, Kiva is one spoke in the larger wheel of microfinance. On a global scale, it has a very big impact. Typically, when you go to a village or province, certain industries are prevalent. In a fishing community, maybe the borrower bought a fishnet or a fishing boat. In an area with a lot of bamboo, it's going to be crafts. I worked in eleven branch offices. I met over 40 different female borrowers individually and over 250 in my time there. I can see that the money Kiva provides makes a difference. Microfinance is a very slow process, and there are gems and sparks of people who break through the poverty cycle. When you see villages changing, it's really something. It's like watching grass grow, but it's really beautiful grass. This woman is a pig farmer and a recipient of funds from a Kiva-affiliated organization . RWW: Now you're working on a seven-day, seven-city tour to raise awareness and funds for malaria prevention through bed nets. Where did this idea come from? It's a city-by-city competition on who can raise the most money for malaria nets, but also an opportunity for anyone to donate who wants to get involved. The tour starts this Saturday night in New York City and continues for the next seven days in Miami, New Orleans, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and ends in Los Angeles on Friday... I'd just finished Kiva training, and I was going to the Philippines for three months. And all I could think was, "When I come back, I'm going to be thirty ." I've honed in a lot on my direction - using the Internet to help people. And what if I could use this opportunity to give back, involving people in different parts of the country - something really ambitious? I wanted it to be about saving lives. I wanted to say, "I saved this many lives on my birthday." I've done a lot of work in HIV and AIDS; I looked into that and polio and malaria, and that's what stuck with me. The campaign has no administrative fees. One hundred percent of the funds go to malaria... in rural northern Ghana. Providing malaria nets will really be a part of saving lives there. Berrent met this monk in Burma and spent the afternoon pagoda-hopping with him. RWW: What needs or gaps do you see in philanthropic efforts online? I think it's not having a strategy to begin with, not knowing the tools in your toolbox before you start. There's a lot to be said for jumping in and having fun, but nonprofits don't have the resources to play around online. They think it's about getting interns and getting followers and fans without figuring out why a medium is important and how to make it successful for them. RWW: What's one surprise - good or bad - that you've come across since you started working with Kiva? What did you not expect from this experience, and what did you learn? I learned that it's much more complicated than the website makes it seem. There's an entire division devoted to foreign exchange currency. The operational cost analysis, the challenges of technology in the developing world, the processes of remittance - it's incredibly complex. There are regional specialists. On the site, you can make a loan in five clicks, but a lot of machinery comes together to make it that way. RWW: What's next for you? Is there more globe-trotting in your immediate future? How do you think the web will continue to be part of your life and career? One of the best parts of this past year has been that I've gone through long periods where I didn't have Internet access. That's brought me a heightened and renewed sense of my purpose in the world and my authentic desire to make the world a better place. I'd like to be able to continue to support campaigns - even for-profit ventures - that I believe in, and I think social business is a wonderful intersection of the two. I want to explore avenues with online and offline components, while continuing to blog and tell stories I'm passionate about. Follow Berrent's next adventures on Twitter or at her blog . And all this is just the tip of the iceburg that is Sloane Berrent's fascinating story. For a fuller look at her travels and timeline, check out this list of her nine favorite posts on her blog, The Causemopolitan, covering humanitarianism, her work in New Orleans, the phenomenon of serendipity in international travel, and much more. Many thanks to Sloane Berrent for the use of her videos and images as well as for sharing her story with us and our readers. Discuss

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Kiva's Causemopolitan on World Tour: Social Media for Social Good

There isn't a mass exodus from Facebook over the privacy settings, but it is responding with messages like this sent to users to assuage their fears: "Worried about search engines? Your information is safe. There have been misleading rumors about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true..." Several thoughtful Web 2.0 users have blogged about their decision in the last week to leave Facebook and two different "suicide" sites exist. Sponsor This guest post was written by Kaliya Hamlin, also known as Identity Woman , who has been working on cultivating open standards for user-centric identity since 2004. She co-founded, co-produces and facilitates the Internet Identity Workshop , the primary venue for collaboration on identity standards amongst large Internet portals, large enterprise IT companies and small innovators. This thoughtful post written by Nick Barron , who is based in the Washington D.C. area, talks about meeting Facebook in college and falling in love and understanding this new form of communication in social networks would be transformative for people and business. He believed, "at the end of the day, that Facebook was here for you and me. It was our social network, and while technically being a large company, it was a company of people just like us who wanted a more advanced way of building and maintaining relationships. "I feel there are no good alternatives for me, except going along with whatever scraps of privacy Facebook is graciously willing to hand me from their table... Facebook has me by the balls. They have you, too, and they know it . They know you have too many friends and family, photos and videos, games and other applications on Facebook for you to leave now. And where would you go? Where would I go?... I am not committed to Facebook anymore. I am looking for a way out, while still being able to do my job. Can a social media pro leave Facebook? We may soon find out." Others are more blunt: "Simply put, I don't trust my information being on Facebook anymore. I have deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone and I will shut down the page in about a week." I'm Leaving Facebook by Steve Scherer. "I am not a privacy hawk, nor a fear-monger, nor a neo-luddite; in fact, those of you who know me well know that I am a technology enthusiast and a generally a booster of any technology related solutions that could potentially make our lives easier. In this instance I'm morally and intellectually opposed to Facebook's cavalier attitude with what amounts to, for some of us, data that relates to a significant portion of our (online) lives. See also: Why Facebook Changed Its Privacy Policies A visit to the privacy settings pages and FAQs reveals a great many soothing platitudes. While these may fulfil their legal obligations it is ultimately disingenuous for Facebook to suggest that anyone actually reads any of these when in reality the vast majority of users likely accept the default "Everyone" setting. " "Why I'm Hitting the "Delete" Key on Facebook" by Narain Jashanmal. Early adopter and tech journalist Dan Gilmor is among those who have committed "suicide." He started a new account with his old Facebook URL and checked out the new default privacy settings that he describes as "un-private." He highlights the conflict as, "What's in the corporate interest, however, doesn't necessarily match what's in my interest, or yours." If you want to commit "Facebook suicide" you have two options. One is Seppukoo.com, which likens the act of killing your digital self to: Discover what's after your Facebook life. We assist your virtual suicide. You are more then your virtual identity. Pass away and leave your ID behind. Seppukwho? Testimonials and Frinds. Discover who has committed seppukoo. Impress your friends, disconnect yourself. Join the world wide suicidal network. The site was created by Les Liens Invisibles , which creates playful 2.0-style media artworks. Two people make up this imaginary art group, Clemente Pestelli and Gionatan Quintini. You can see Gionatan's RIP memorial on the site ; it highlights friends that have joined him in the Facebook afterlife along with those still left. The process works like this: 1) you give the site your login credentials, 2) you create last works and a skin for your customized memorial page, 3) you enjoy your Sepppukoo - the platform will send all your friends your last words and customize your memorial page - and 4) you get a score - every friend you convince to Seuppukoo will increase your score on the site. This version of Facebook suicide is not permanent - you can just login to Facebook. Sepppukoo does have a cease and desist from Facebook , although dated Dec. 16. One of the main points is that they "collect Facebook's users' content or information using automated means such as scripts or scrapers without Facebook's permission" The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine offers "suicide" for Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin. It highlights its time saving nature taking just under one hour vs. over nine hours to go through the process manually with 1,000 Facebook friends. The tool lets you watch your "virtual suicide" as it happens. They have 134 people they say have committed suicide using their tools. You can see the list along with their last words and how many friends they lost. You can see a video by Moddr_ of it in action. "Liberate your newbie friends with a Web2.0 suicide! This machine lets you delete all your energy sucking social-networking profiles, kill your fake virtual friends, and completely do away with your Web 2.0 alterego." He say in the video, "my interent life is dying and my real life is starting," and closes with" Get your life back - sign-out forever" Their FAQs are great. If I start killing my 2.0-self, can I stop the process? No! If I start killing my 2.0-self, can YOU stop the process? No! What shall I do after I've killed myself with the Web 2.0 suicide machine? Try calling some friends, talk a walk in a park or buy a bottle of wine and start enjoying your real life again. Some Social Suiciders reported that their life has improved by an approximate average of 25%. Don't worry, if you feel empty right after you committed suicide. This is a normal reaction which will slowly fade away within the first 24-72 hours. Why do we think the Web 2.0 suicide machine is not unethical? Everyone should have the right to disconnect. Seamless connectivity and rich social experience offered by web2.0 companies are the very antithesis of human freedom. Users are entraped in a high resolution panoptic prison without walls, accessible from anywhere in the world. Whatever you think about the bleak humor of a Facebook "suicide, those who've left - or are thinking about leaving - are talking about their decision in terms of freedom. "I made the decision yesterday to ditch Facebook. Their privacy options are too intrusive. Glad twitter isn't like that." @ReetaLuthra "I actually feel more wholesome after leaving Facebook. I didn't expect that." @sansian "I think it's the feeling of loss of control that I don't like, that something is set in such a way that I can't reset it myself, and thus info is getting out/posted online/is otherwise being used in such a way that I don't want. I'll have to think about it... I'm just tempted to take what seems to be the path of least resistance and just ditch Facebook entirely. I'll have to think about it... " Considering Leaving Facebook We even found a Muslim perspective ( translation ) on the virtues of leaving the virtual world for the real world. This recently popped up: Facebook is hiring for its Advertising Privacy Counsel to work on a "cross-section of fascinating legal issues". I am wondering if maybe they should have done more hiring before they changed privacy policies, which may have broken the law and and has lead the Electronic Privacy Information Center to file a complaint with the FTC . Face book photo by Massimo Barbieri . Discuss

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Fed Up With Facebook Privacy Issues? Here's How To End It All

App downloads on the iPhone and iPod Touch saw a huge spike this Christmas , especially on the Touch. I know I downloaded more games this weekend than I've ever used in my life, just to entertain kids I was visiting. With all this app downloading going on, though, which apps will prove to have staying power? What can you download today and expect to keep using throughout the next year? Below is my collection of the downloaded apps I used the most in 2009. I'd love to compare lists, so let me know in comments about any hidden gems that you've come back to again and again throughout the year. Sponsor RSS readers may be unable to view the embedded display in javascript but can click through to the full article to check out this collection. Those are the apps I kept coming back to all year, what about you? The app sharing widget above is from AppsFire , my favorite way to share single or groups of apps with other people by widget or email, and one of 5 app recommendation services we compared feature-by-feature last month . Discuss

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My Most-Used iPhone Apps of 2009

If you're reading this, you already know you're screwed. Someone, somewhere has been forgotten on your gift list, and you're scrambling. As per usual, we at RWW have got your back. Here are five ideas that will not only save you from certain disgrace but just might make you look a little more with it and wired than your loved ones expected. Sponsor 1) Of-The-Month Clubs Flowers, beers, books, even dog treats - for every hobby, there's a club membership that will bring the recipient monthly or even weekly gifts. With this kind of gift, you'll be the hero all year round - in fact it'll give you and the lucky recipient added incentive to communicate more often if you don't now. 2) Netflix Membership For the movie buff or couch potato in your life, this gift says you condone and embrace the cinematic lifestyle. Memberships are tiered, so you can be as budget-conscious (or as generous) as you like. 3) Pro Apps or Paid Features For all the free web apps we use and enjoy, there are often pro versions with special benefits. I've personally enjoyed a pro Flickr account for ages, and the RWW gang love the speedy, unlimited-HD goodness of our pro Vimeo account. If you have new parents in your life, try a kid-centric subscription model web service such as LilGrams . 4) Multimedia Gifts Piracy is a dying art, so for the music, movie and game aficionados on your gift list, look around the web for legitimate sources of multimedia content. Gamers will love Microsoft Points for XBox Live or similar goodies for Wii and PS3. And for the youngsters and musicians, you can't go wrong with an eMusic or similar subscription. 5) Know Thy Geek: Fonts, Domains, and Software I've been lusting after a particular domain name for a few months now. If someone knew me well enough to buy it, that lady or dude would be the most awesome Santa to date. And I won some brownie points myself for buying a special person a very special font he'd been wanting for quite some time. Likewise, if you've heard a hobbyist or nerd enthusing about a software update that might qualify as a bit of a splurge, the holiday is the perfect time to surprise him or her with a shiny, new email notification or ZIP file. These kinds of gifts show that you know the person well enough to understand and support his or her need to geek out. And what better gift is there, after all? Discuss

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5 Very Last-Minute Gifts from the Internet Hero/Shopping Mall Zero